Martha Barnette leads a tour through the language of the garden, stopping along the way to coax out the many secrets that flowers have to tell about history, culture, psychology, folklore, and science. "Everything in it is delightful to learn. Barnette takes us through languages and across millennia in a charming style that, starting with words describing things we eat, turns out to offer endless food for thought."~ The New Yorker

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The quotation: THE ANTH- IN… ANTHURIUM… MEANS ‘TO BLOOM.” … THE GREEK WORD FOR “FLOWER,” ANTHOS,… GAVE US ONE OF THE LOVELIEST OF ENGLISH WORDS, ANTHOLOGY, WHICH LITERALLY MEANS A “GATHERING OF FLOWERS,” OR “GARLAND” — A LITERARY BOQUET, IF YOU WILL.

The author’s name and the title of the work: BARNETTE, A GARDEN OF WORDS

The anth- in the name of the anthodium originates from the Indo-European root called ANDH-, which means “to bloom.” This root also gave rise to the Greek word for “flower,” anthos, the source of such floral words in English as anther, “the pollen-bearing part of a blossom,” and anthesis, “the period of a flower’s full bloom.” Anth- is part of such flower names as chrysanthemum, from Greek khrusas, “gold,” and also seems to have influence the name of the flower called amaranth, from Greek amarantos, “enciphering,” “unfading.”

Anthos is part of the Greek verb exanthein, “to bloom out,” “burst forth,” and thus in the medical term exanthema, a glorified word for “skin rash.” The Greek word for “flower” also gave us one of the loveliest of English words, anthology, which literally means a “gathering of flowers,” or “garland”—a literary bouquet, if you will.